What Happens in Vegas
by xenascully
Summary: Sequel to Goin' On a Jetplane. Birthday present for Taylor Gibbs. Slightly AU because of location; see notes inside. Tony and Gibbs are in Vegas on a personal assignment for a Navy Admiral. Tony has a past at the very hotel they're staking out. Neither of them are prepared for just how connected Tony's past is to the current case they're working.
1. Chapter 1

**What Happens in Vegas**

**AN: So...I wanted to write another birthday-tribute fic for TG, and had no idea what to do (and she simply left me with an "I'm easy" which didn't really give me any ideas of what she might want...LOL So, I was left to ponder. And then I had some weird medical issues over the weekend, stir in out-of-town company, and you've got yourself a combo #not-gettin'-shit-done-on-the-computer. So this is late...**

**I thought long and hard about this one. There has to have been some "Dad left me for 2 days when I was a kid" prompted Tony fics already out there. I'm sure I've even read some of them in the past, but I'll be damned if I could find any of them now. So...I mulled it over in my head a bit. I wanted to do something original. I wanted it to be both fun and somehow devastating. **

**The idea that Tony's father wasn't/isn't an abusive asshole, but just a neglectful and obliviously bad father, kind of ixnays most ideas I might've had before knowing that much about him. However, it also sort of opens up an opportunity to try something that may not have been done yet. Here's hoping.**

**OH and also? Friggin' just realized it was Maui that Sr left Tony at the hotel. So this is officially AU. LOL In my defense, Jetplane was written before that revelation. **

**Happy birthday, TG! **

***~.~***

The work was a personal favor for a Navy Admiral. They seemed to be doing a lot of those lately. Favors.

They'd be watching for any suspicious activity at the hotel they were staying at. The nature of what exactly they'd be looking for had yet to be revealed. All they were certain of was that they were undercover. Of course, Tony didn't know that until they checked in to the hotel and were in their room.

"We're doing what?" Tony asked, eyes widened in both surprise and shock. Gibbs smirked, amused by his reaction. Tony should've known the moment they'd walked into the honeymoon suite, though.

"Does it make you uncomfortable?" Gibbs asked with a raised brow. "People thinking you're married to a man?"

"Yeah... No," he quickly changed his answer, shaking his head. "No, I'm not...I just...can't believe you agreed to do this! With me!"

"This isn't gonna be like what you and Ziva did," Gibbs told him. "There's no surveillance on the room; no need to get into any...awkward positions."

"Okay... Yeah, but why are we doing this?" he asked.

"So we could be on this floor without suspicion," Gibbs replied.

"Oh," Tony replied as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Why do we need to be on this floor?"

"It's where we need to keep a look out," Gibbs told him.

"And we still have no idea what we're looking for," Tony surmised.

"File's supposed to get here tonight," Gibbs told him.

"Delivered to the room?"

"Email. Told them to send it to yours."

"Guess I'll boot up the laptop then," Tony said, pushing up off of the bed and going for his bag. Gibbs watched him as he continued to hang up his clothes in the closet beside the bed. He could tell the agent was tense. Tony hadn't given away much information about his childhood two-day abandonment, except that this was the same hotel where it had happened.

"You okay, Tony?" Gibbs asked as the younger man opened the laptop.

Tony glanced back at him with question on his face. "Yeah, boss. I'm fine. Why?" he asked as he looked back to the computer and hit the power button.

"You said you had a past experience with this hotel, and you seem a little preoccupied."

Tony let out a small laugh. "Not so much preoccupied as...reminiscent, I suppose," he replied. "I don't remember much about it. Just that I'd been upset at the time. Disappointed maybe. Can't really pin it. But being back here in this hotel gives me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nothing I can't handle, boss," he said with a final smirk as his email popped up on the desktop.

"We've got mail," he announced as he clicked on it. Gibbs walked over and sat down in the second chair at the small table Tony had set the computer up on. "Looks like...we're investigating suspicious activity at the hotel. Okay, we knew that much," he said, then continued reading. "The admiral's son-in-law requested that he be allowed to take his kids to Vegas two weeks ago... Wait," he shook his head. "Why would he need permission to take his kids anywhere?"

"Not in his custody," Gibbs surmised. "The admiral's daughter was killed in Iraq last year. Land mine accident. Her ex was outta the picture."

"Looks like the admiral had custody of the kids," Tony said as he continued to read. "So he lets him take the kids to Vegas. Father/kid bonding trip maybe?" he said with a shrug. "Why don't people take their kids to Disney World anymore?"

"They do," Gibbs replied.

"Okay, no hints about what we're looking into yet," Tony said as he scrolled a bit down. "Okay here we go. When the kids came back to the admiral, they were acting weird, sluggish, lethargic... He took them to the doctor. They found..." Tony stopped mid-sentence.

"Tony?"

"They found traces of Rohypnol in both the ten year old boy and his eight year old sister," Tony said in a smaller voice. "Signs of possible sexual assault... Christ. Boss, why the hell are we in Vegas instead of interrogating the admiral's son-in-law?"

Gibbs took over the computer, scrolling further down in the email. "Because he was questioned and released," Gibbs told him. "He said he'd been called away at the last minute for business. Kids were left in the room."

"Alone?"

"Apparently almost the entire weekend," Gibbs said, shaking his head slightly. "Kids confirmed it. They were alone the whole time. Ordered room service when they got hungry. They don't remember anything else."

"They wouldn't remember anything else if he drugged them," Tony scoffed as he stood and began a slow pacing back and forth.

"He's got witnesses for his whereabouts the entire time he claimed to have been gone," Gibbs told him as he read.

"Yeah well, even if it wasn't him, what the hell makes the admiral think he should send two NCIS agents to a hotel in Vegas? If those kids were assaulted, I highly doubt whoever did it would stick around."

Gibbs made a thoughtful sound as he read further in the email. "Apparently...Abby's been working on this for over a week now," he said.

"What?" Tony's face scrunched incredulously, and he stopped to face his boss.

"He heard about her skill set. Requested her assistance. She looked into it."

"And?"

"And it says we should talk to her," Gibbs replied. "Get that Skype thing up on this thing," he told him as he pushed the computer in Tony's direction.

"It's pushing seven in D.C. I guess she might still be there," he said as he pulled up the program.

Within minutes, Abby was on the screen.

"_Gibbs! Tony!" _she said with a smile. _"How was your flight? How's Vegas? I hear this is a great time to hit the casinos!"_

"We're here to work, Abs," Gibbs reminded her.

"Casinos later," Tony said with a smirk.

"We need to know what you know about Admiral Parker's case," Gibbs got straight to business.

The smile dropped slowly from her face. _"Oh. I had a feeling that's what you were going there for," _she said. _"Okay well, it was really hard to find anything based on the information the admiral gave me. But as soon as I cross-referenced that hotel specifically, strange reports started popping up as far back as 1992. I'd send you what I found, but it'd be easier just to tell you._

"_All of the reports were vague, mainly complaints that there was maybe something wrong with the hotel itself. Some of them said the place might be haunted. Their children were coming home terrified or lethargic but with no memory of why._

"_Now the reports themselves are far and few between. Kids ranging anywhere from age six to twelve. No specific gender. However, I did find that if it was a single child complaint, it was always a boy. The only time a girl was involved in a report is when she was there with her brother. None of those cases reported any physical or sexual assault. But none of them were exactly checked for it, either."_

"How many cases, Abs?" Gibbs asked.

"_Six," _she said with a grimace. _"I know it's not a lot to go on, but I feel like there's something really bad happening at that hotel, Gibbs. _

"Six vague reports in twenty-two years? Yeah I'd say that's kind of a shot in the dark," Tony commented.

"_I know," _Abby whined. _"I know it seems like it. But I went and read the statements from all of those kids, and they all had one thing in common to say. They'd all ventured up to the top floor when their parents had stepped out for the evening. They all remember going up, but they don't remember anything after that point; just waking up in their room."_

"Is that what happened with the admiral's grandkids?" Gibbs asked.

"_No. They didn't have to wander to the top floor. They were staying on the top floor," _Abby told them. _"Parker's son-in-law booked a suite there for a three night stay."_

"Not exactly a price range for a single dad and two kids," Tony stated.

"_Definitely. He doesn't have a steady job. In fact, I can't even figure out where this guy makes his money. But he doesn't have much of it. And this business he was called away for? He took some kind of odd job in Reno."_

"He left his kids seven hours away for a weekend?" Tony nearly growled. "What the hell is wrong with people?"

"_He claimed that they were mature enough to be on their own," _Abby scoffed. _"He called to check in on them every few hours during the day."_

"I'm guessing there's not a connection with any of the potential victims," Gibbs said.

"_Nothing I can find," _Abby replied. _"I even looked for guest logs all the way back to 1992 to see if there were any repeat customers checked in during each of the stays. I got bupkiss, bossman."_

"There's gotta be something."

"_Something I'm overlooking, yeah I know. It's possible they're checking in with an alias each time. And it's possible there are more victims and it's just gone unreported. I've been looking into each and every guest, Gibbs. Checking out credit cards and driver's license photos. Nothing I've found so far comes up as an alias, but there's a lot to go through still. The only person that's stayed there all these years is the owner. And he's like...mega old and wheelchair bound."_

"Keep digging, Abs. Let us know if you find anything."

He ended the Skype call without any help from Tony. The little red button seemed self-explanatory enough. He looked over at Tony who had been uncharacteristically quiet for the last few minutes. The younger man seemed to be staring off at nothing in particular.

"Tony," Gibbs said, narrowing his eyes when there was no response. "Hey," he said a little louder, and Tony was suddenly looking over at him. "Something wrong?"

Tony looked at him, his expression lost and somewhat confused. "I...I think maybe... Gibbs..."

"Spit it out, Tony," he told him, turning to face him fully now.

"Admiral Parker's story," he said. "That sound at all familiar to you? Dad leaving the kids alone for two days..." Gibbs narrowed his eyes again, but this time it was in thought and possibly a bit of denial. "We didn't get a suite up on this floor back then. But I... When Dad was gone, I remember getting bored and wanting to check out what all the glamor of the penthouse floor was." Gibbs' gut got a nauseated feeling. "Boss, I remember coming up here. And I don't remember anything else except waking up in bed in our room down on the lower level..."

*~.~*

**AN: Christchex that took a lot of effort. I'm leaving this open-ended because I'd sincerely like to continue it at some point. I've just got a ton else to get done beforehand, and my shiny butterfly brain can't deal with more than one story at a time. lol**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sooner than I imagined...here is the next chapter. I'll be updating in the order of each story I've got under my belt, which right now is a whopping FIVE. Crazy. I tried doing two at one time before and it was not a very good time for my poor distracted brain. Lol**

***~.~***

"Need you to add something to that search," Gibbs told Abby quietly over the phone. Tony was in the shower, and Gibbs was taking advantage of the time to talk without his agent listening in. "This could go back as far as 1980. Maybe even earlier."

"_It's gonna be hard to get that information, Gibbs. There was a different system back then, so I'd have to ask their local authorities to fax over what they've got. 92 was the farthest back I could find anything remotely. But that hotel has been there since gambling became legal in Las Vegas. It's stayed in the same family, too. It gets passed down generation to generation. That's really all I can tell you at this point. Is there something you know? Did you find something?"_

"Not sure yet, Abs," he told her. "But let me know the moment you do." He ended the call.

Not only was this case unnerving, but it seemed damned near impossible to figure out. The information they had was vague. There was no evidence, no description of whoever committed the apparent acts. Now with there being a possibility that Tony was one of the victims in this case, that would mean that it's been happening for over thirty years. Part of him was starting to take into consideration the idea that the hotel was haunted.

"Boss, you gotta try the shower," Tony said as he stepped out of the bathroom in one of the complimentary bath robes. "The water pressure is amazing."

"No callin' me boss here, Tony," he replied. "You'll blow our cover."

"Oh yeah. Right," Tony let out a small laugh as he walked over to his bag to find something to change into. "So what's the plan tonight...Jethro?" he tested the waters.

Gibbs shrugged. "Order something up for dinner, I guess."

"Sounds great. I'm starved," Tony said with a grin and patted his stomach.

"You order. I'll grab a shower," he said as he stood and headed toward the bathroom. "And stay in the robe," he told him. "It'll help keep up appearances when the food is delivered."

"Nothin' better than pantsless dinner," Tony said with a grin and headed for the motel phone. Gibbs shook his head with a smile on his face as he headed for the bathroom.

Twenty-five minutes later, there was a knock at the door. _"Room service," _a male voice sounded behind it.

"I got it," Tony told Gibbs as he went to the door. Both of them were wearing just the white, fluffy bathrobes over their boxers. Tony made sure to open the door all the way so that the service guy would see it. "Hey there," he told the man with a relaxed grin.

"Good evening, sir," the man replied. "May I bring your meals in?"

"Sure," Tony said and moved out of the man's way, allowing him to push the cart into the room. He stayed at the door and held a twenty in his hand, waiting for him to be finished. The sound of the elevator chime caught his attention.

"Is there anything else I can get for you this evening, gentlemen?" the man asked.

"This is all we'll need right now, thanks," Tony said, handing him the bill as he walked past him out the door.

"Enjoy your meal," the man said, nodding with an appreciative smile before he headed out. Tony leaned out the door just enough to watch a man and his two young sons step off of the elevator, the father greeting the hotel employee with a small nod before leading his boys toward another door. When the man started to glance over, Tony quickly reentered his own room and shut the door.

"What's up?" Gibbs asked.

"Guy checkin' in with kids," Tony told him as he walked up to the table and took a seat across from Gibbs. "Two boys. Probably eight and ten."

Gibbs tilted his head as he took the lids off of their dinner plates. "Could be nothing."

"Yeah, probably," Tony replied. "Just thinkin', they're in the room two doors down from us. I figure if this floor is haunted, it could just be one room. Like somebody died violently there or something."

"You don't really think there's a ghost, do you?" Gibbs asked with a raised brow.

"Of course not," Tony said with a laugh. "A ghost singling out children and...wiping their memory? That's just ridiculous!"

"Thoughts otherwise?" he asked as he cut into his steak.

"You mean something a little less supernatural, a little more sinister? I guess it's possible that there's word on the street that this floor is the perfect spot to get away with sex crimes of the pedo-nature."

"It's a possibility. People like that, usually when they find a safe place, they come back. I'll have Abby check this floor's guests specifically."

"Know what's especially worrisome about this? People are flying in from all over that stay on this floor. If they're not coming back here, that means there's another place they can go to as well. What if there are places like this all over the country?"

"Don't know about all that, Tony. Seems like we'd have seen some evidence before now."

"If this has been going on here since 1992 and we're just now realizing something's up, what makes you think it's not possible?" Tony asked. "We may never even have heard of it happening here if it hadn't been for the admiral."

"Well maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are cases elsewhere. It's not our usual department. But that's too vast to ask Abby to look into. We've gotta concentrate on this one, and hope we catch whoever's involved."

"My point is that if there really is some kind of hotel penthouse pedophile ring, and we crash this one, we may only be scraping the surface. Could be hundreds of these sickos, and we'd catch a few; the others would disappear."

"So we'll tread lightly," Gibbs told him before taking a forkful of steak into his mouth. "I'll get Abby to look into guest departures, where they end up going next, and if there's a pattern anywhere. In the meantime, Abby's gonna get us access to the security cameras on this floor and the lobby and front desk."

"Oh I get it now," Tony grinned. "We're a newlywed couple because it explains why we spend so much time in our room."

Gibbs let out a small laugh. "Guess we should probably take a trip or two to the casino downstairs," he said. "At some point, anyway."

"You ever spend a honeymoon here before, Gibbs?" Tony asked with a sly grin and a raised brow.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Gibbs said with a smile as he took another bite of his steak.

"Yes, I would actually," Tony replied. "Since I'm your husband, I feel I have the right to know these things."

"This is how it always starts," Gibbs said, shaking his head.

"Hey! I am not like your other wives!"

"You just called yourself my wife."

"No I... Damnit..."

*~.~*

Three hours later, they were checking the video feed on Tony's laptop.

The two of them had gone down to the casino that was part of the hotel. They met the manager who apparently took great care of anyone who stayed on the top floor. _"You're partly paying for my attention," _the man had said with a wink. _"If you need anything that would make your stay all the more special, you just call and ask for me."_

Now that Tony thought about it again, it seemed a bit creepy.

"Feed looks good," Gibbs said. The screen was split four ways. The hallway for the top floor had two cameras, as it turned on an L around the corner and held three other rooms. The bottom two were for the lobby and the front desk.

"Ya know, we should have Abby run all the employees through the database," Tony suggested. "There's no way this has been going on all these years and no one on staff knows something about it."

"Could be involved," Gibbs agreed. "Give her a call."

"It's almost three in the morning in DC, Gibbs. I'll call her in the morning. For now, I think I'm gonna crash," he said as he stood and stretched. "Between the flight and this day, I'm wiped. Guess I'll take that uh...chaise thingie over there," he said as he motioned toward the fancy couch under the window.

"Don't be an idiot," Gibbs replied without looking away from the computer screen. "Bed's big enough for _three_ people. We can share."

"Eh...you sure about that? I have been known to be unintentionally cuddly in my sleep."

Gibbs looked at him then, a brow raised in amusement. "Get in bed, DiNozzo."

"Shouldn't call me that, Gibbs," Tony grinned mockingly. "Technically I'm Mrs. Gibbs now." The grin dropped from his face, then. "Wait...that- that's not what I meant..."

"Too late," Gibbs laughed.

"I must really be tired..."

Tony shut up and changed into a tee shirt and boxers and climbed into bed. He wouldn't let himself think about his deeply closeted crush on his boss.

He definitely wouldn't let himself think about the fact that when he woke up the next morning, he was wrapped around the older man like a giant octopus-spoon.

*~.~*

Gibbs slept until eight, which was late for Gibbs, but Tony figured it was the time difference.

"Morning, Gibbs," Tony said from in front of the computer. "Had coffee brought up. It's in one of those plug-in pots over on the counter. Figured you'd want one to yourself and wasn't sure when you'd be up. There's an omelet, too, but it's probably cold by now."

"How long have you been up?" Gibbs asked as he stretched out of bed.

"About an hour," he replied. "Just finishing up watching the night's recordings. What time did you get to sleep last night?"

"Maybe half an hour after you," Gibbs replied as he headed for the coffee pot. "Anything to see on the tapes?"

Tony decided not to bother correcting the term. "Other than the black-jack girl and our bellhop from last night are having a secret affair? Not much. I called Abby when I got up. She's gonna get back to us." Gibbs made a short grunt of acknowledgment as poured his coffee. "Check this out," Tony said after a moment of looking at the screen.

Gibbs walked over with his mug of hot coffee and looked at the screen. "That the guy that checked in with his kids last night?"

"Yeah."

"This from last night?"

"Live feed," Tony said. "What is he doing?" The man had left his room and walked a few feet away, turning back toward the door and looking anxious. "Looks nervous to me. Like he can't make up his mind."

"Or like he's guilty of something," Gibbs said before setting his mug down on the table, grabbing the service tray and heading toward the door.

"Gibbs, what're you doing?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he opened the door and stepped out to put the tray on the floor outside of the door; his motive for being in the hall. He looked over at the pacing man, who stopped and looked over at him when he noticed him.

"Everything okay?" Gibbs asked.

"Uh...yeah," he said nervously. "Just uh... I've got a business meeting and I've gotta leave my boys here. Management assures me they'll be watched out for while I'm gone, but I'm still...uh..."

"Reasonable," Gibbs offered.

"I guess."

"We can keep an eye and an ear open, if you want," he told him.

"No no...No it's okay, really," the man insisted, his nervousness seeming to ramp up even further. "I've already made the arrangements, and I don't know you, so..."

"It's really no trouble. You can tell them that if they need help, they can come knock on the door here."

"Uh... I really have to go," the man said, then turned, hopping into the open elevator as quickly as possible. Gibbs stood in the hallway a few heartbeats longer, before reentering their room.

"Well that was only suspicious as hell," Tony commented...

Tbc...


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This is late because we had an emergency come up this weekend! Disasteriffic Kaz got appendicitis and had to get an appendectomy—and soon will need her gallbladder removed, which is what caused the problem in the first place! So anyway, yeah...it was a chaotic weekend. My apologies for the delay~ Also, apologies for any typos. No time for editing. Like...ever. LOL**

***~.~***

"_Bernard Ratliff," _Abby said over the Skype call. _"The guy you had me look up. The manager? He's Boris Ratliff's son. Boris is the owner of the hotel. They stay in the same suite..."_

"Funny," Tony said. "I haven't seen him up here at all."

"_And the guy on the video you sent, Markus Hendler. He's an excessive gambler and in like, a boatload of debt. He works for a Telnet company in Vegas. Divorced, with two kids, but doesn't have any sort of shared custody. So when you told me he had them there, I checked it out. His ex lives in Boulder City. Hendler doesn't have any usable credit cards, so at first I thought there was no way he'd have been able to get a flight, especially with him being in so much debt. But since he also has no registered vehicle or driver's license, I took another look. There was a flight purchased by Ratliff himself, for a private jet. Two round-trips for someone named Alex Markus. One to and from Boulder City, and two more, one for Christopher Markus, and one for Jacob Markus, to and from Vegas from Boulder City. Wanna know the kicker? Markus is using all of those aliases for his check-in information at the hotel, and there's no financial transaction for that room this weekend."_

"He said he got called away on business," Gibbs mentioned. "Can you tell if he's actually working?"

"_Once I found out where he worked, I looked into it. He did actually clock in about twenty minutes ago. But Telnet isn't a place that would keep him away all day. But I guess if it's hard to find a way there and back...I dunno, Gibbs, I just think it's horrible he'd leave his kids there alone. Anything could happen to them!"_

"I think he knows exactly what's gonna happen to them," Gibbs said before ending the call. "We need to go find Hendler," he told Tony as he stood and headed toward the door.

"Wait. Boss..err Gibbs, look," Tony told him, motioning to the screen which showed the live video feed again now that the call was over. "Someone's leading the kids outta the room."

The screen was in Gibbs' view just in time to see them walk out of sight. "Let's go," Gibbs said, quickly turning toward the door again, grabbing his gun and tucking it into the back of his pants. Tony followed suit and headed out the door behind him.

Once in the hall, they saw the man turn the corner ahead. They hurried after them, but once they rounded the corner, the door at the very end of the hall was closing behind the man with the two boys. As they approached, Gibbs noticed the name plate beside the door frame. "This is Ratliff's room," Gibbs said. When Tony didn't answer, he turned to look at him. The younger agent was standing still, staring at the door with a confused look on his face. "Tony? What is it?" Gibbs asked, eyes narrowed.

Tony shook his head. "I...don't know," he replied. "I just...this seems...familiar somehow."

"Can I help you gentlemen?" They turned to see the younger Ratliff at the now open door.

"Yeah," Gibbs replied. "We saw you with Mr. Markus' boys. We were wondering why that would be."

"Well Mr. Markus asked me to keep an eye on them," Ratliff replied with a smile. "He's been called out on business."

"Yeah, we uh...we heard that," Gibbs said, scratching the back of his head. "It's just...my husband was concerned about them leaving their room," he told him, pulling Tony to his side, his arm around his waist. Tony was shocked silent for a moment, but quickly fell into character.

"Yeah. I think it'd make me feel a lot better if we could see that they were okay," Tony said.

"Who's at the door, Bernie?" an older man's voice sounded.

"Uh...just the nice couple that rented the honeymoon suite, Pa," he yelled back. "They just wanted to make sure the kids were okay."

"Well they only just got here," the old man called back.

"Right. Yes. Uh...you can come in for a moment, if it makes you feel better," Bernard told the agents. "We were just going to start a movie for them." He moved back, holding the door open for the two of them to enter.

Once Tony got a full view of the inside, something started flowing through his mind, like a flip had been switched. While Gibbs walked ahead to see the boys sitting on the floor in front of the TV, Tony was stuck where he stood, the room around him seeming to ripple; the scene around him changing into something else. It was the same room, but it was so much bigger, and the color was suddenly absent. There was a boy holding his hand, leading him into the room. And there was a man there waiting for them.

"_Hi there," the man said with a grin. "Thirsty? I've got some lemonade here. You like lemonade?"_

"_Sure," Tony replied, his voice small. The man handed him the glass. _

"_Come sit with me," he said, patting the couch cushion beside him. Tony complied, climbing onto the couch to sit beside the man. "You're a very handsome young man," he said as Tony took a few gulps of the drink. He stopped when the man's hand laid down on Tony's leg. "Such a pretty boy, Erik." His eyes darkened, and Tony was confused._

"_My name's not Erik," he said, shaking his head._

"_What?" the man asked flatly, pulling his hand away._

"_My name is Tony," he told him. "I don't feel so good..." His stomach was starting to hurt._

"_Bernard!" the man shouted. "Where did you find this one?"_

"_In the hall, pa," the boy replied. "He was right out in the hall."_

"_I told you to go fetch the boy from the room next door!"_

The room came back into focus. Gibbs stood just a few feet in front of him. He was saying something to Bernard, but to Tony it sounded far away. All he could think about in that moment was what he'd just remembered; that this man...was the one they were looking for.

"Is your husband okay?" Bernard asked Gibbs, and the older man turned to look at his agent right as Tony began raising his gun. "Oh my god! What are you doing?"

"Tony?" Gibbs questioned him.

"It's him, Gibbs," he replied. "It's him and his father." His gun was aimed and Bernard.

"Talk to me, Tony," Gibbs implored, his own hand moving to the weapon tucked in his waistband.

"I remember," Tony said. "I remember you, Bernard. You were just a kid then. Your dad used you to bring him little playthings."

Bernard looked shocked for a moment, nervous, and then let out a laugh. "What? What are you talking about?"

"When did it become you, Bernard?" Tony asked.

"Excuse me?"

"When did you start using the boys yourself? Did you start out by sharing with him? Or did his equipment stop working right, and the only thing that got him off anymore was if he watched you touch them?"

"You're out of your mind!" Bernard said with a hysterical laugh. Gibbs began looking around them while Tony talked. Once he spotted a baggie with little round, white pills on the kitchenette counter, he realized that this wasn't just his agent having some kind of mental break.

"What are there?" Gibbs asked, holding the baggie up.

"I...I have never seen those before!" the man replied. "Who are you people?"

"NCIS," Gibbs replied, pulling out his badge. "We're here investigating the sexual assault of the Parker children."

"You should remember them pretty well," Tony told Bernard. "But I wonder how many kids you've brutalized since then."

"Get the hell out of my hotel!" Boris Ratliff appeared behind his son. When Bernard moved out of the way, they saw the elderly man in his wheelchair, holding a shotgun and aiming at Tony.

Gibbs quickly drew his weapon, both agents now aiming at the old man. "Drop the weapon, Ratliff!" Gibbs shouted.

"You drop yours!" he replied. "We paid good money for these boys. We pay good money for all our boys! You can't take them away!"

"I won't ask you again," Gibbs said. "Don't make me shoot you."

"Put it down, Pa," Bernard put a hand on the barrel, defeated. "It's over now."

"Tony, call Metro," Gibbs told him. "And tell them to send an ambulance, too." He looked over to where the boys had been sitting on the floor in front of the TV. They now looked to be asleep. He turned back to Bernard. "Did you already drug them?" he asked angrily.

"That's the first thing they do," Tony replied for them. "Offer the kids a drink as soon as they walk in the door, then you can get right to business."

Gibbs looked at his agent for a moment, still standing there in the same position, not having moved a muscle since he'd raised his gun. He took Ratliff's gun, then decided to make the calls himself...

*~.~*

A few hours later, they were packing their bags, readying to head to the airport.

"Kids are gonna be okay," Gibbs told Tony. "Their mother is there with them now." Tony nodded silently, continuing to pack. "Metro picked up Hendler. He's being charged with kidnapping and attempted sex trafficking on two counts."

"Good," Tony replied flatly. "I hope they kill him in prison."

Gibbs couldn't argue with that wish. "They found ledgers in Ratliff's safe," he told him. "Names and dates for every child they every brought there, and the names of the parents that they paid off in trade." Tony paused at that. "I had them look over the entire year of 1980, Tony. Your name wasn't on it, and neither was your father's."

Tony resumed packing. "It wouldn't be," he told him. "Because I wasn't supposed to be there."

Gibbs stepped forward until he was right at his agent's side. "Tell me what happened, Tony," he requested softly.

"Nothing happened," Tony said, shaking his head. "Because he figured out I wasn't the boy he paid for."

"You said...Bernard led you there; that he was just a kid."

Tony let out a breath, holding onto a shirt he had yet to put into his bag. "When I got off the elevator, there was another kid in the hall," Tony told him. "He asked if I wanted to come play at his room. Said he had a big TV and we could watch it. So I went with him...like an idiot."

"You were just a kid."

"I knew better. And I knew better not to accept a drink from a stranger. But that's not the point," he said, looking over at his boss. "I remembered all of that. I mean, I didn't remember it before today. But I didn't think I'd ever remember what happened. I should've tried, at least. All these years...all of these kids... Had I just remembered and told someone something, he could've been stopped a long time ago."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes, looking at him for a long moment. "You were a child, DiNozzo. Just like every one of his victims." Tony looked down at the shirt in his hands, shaking his head again. "Do you blame any of _them_ for not remembering?" Gibbs asked. And Tony looked back up at him, jaw clenching. He swallowed. "The important thing is that we got them. We stopped them. And we saved those kids from them today, and who knows how many more."

Tony nodded, looking back to his bag as he shoved the shirt into it.

"You can't let yourself dwell in the things you couldn't stop," Gibbs continued. "Take it from me, it'll do you nothin' but bad, and everyone else even less. We're gonna track down every victim, and get those families the help they need. _That's_ how you make that feeling go away, Tony."

"I know," Tony replied. "I know, Gibbs. Just...it's all just weird in my head right now. I need some time to understand it all."

"Fate ended us up here," Gibbs told him, putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder so he'd stop messing with his bag for a minute and look at him. "_You_ ending up on this case with me, that was some kinda divine intervention, or whatever they call that." Tony almost smiled at that. "If you hadn't been here with me on this, it might've been too late for those boys. I might not have put it together in time. And it couldn't have happened like that without you." Tony seemed to consider that. "Whatever happened when you walked into that room, whatever your head decided to remind you of," he said as he poked a finger at Tony's temple, "That's what saved them from ending up in one of those ledgers. Four hundred thirty two."

"What?" Tony questioned, brows furrowing.

"That's how many names were found. One or two names for every weekend over the past forty-five years." Tony felt like he was going to throw up. "And it's the number of kids you might've saved from being added in the future." Tony's reddening eyes met Gibbs' again. "You've got absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Those parents, though? The ones who thought there was a price deserving enough to trade their children for? Those are the only ones who should be ashamed. Every last one of 'em that's still alive is going to prison. You can count on that. And you can be part of the team that tracks them down, if you think it'll help."

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "Yeah, I'd like to do that."" His voice cracked involuntarily, and he ducked his head in embarrassment.

Gibbs' hand moved to the man's neck. "You did good, DiNozzo," he told him softly. "And you're gonna keep doin' good on this."

Tony swallowed and met his boss's eyes again. He took a deep breath in through his nose, and let it out slowly, a giant weight lifting from his shoulders. "Let's get the hell outta here, boss."

~Fin


End file.
